Health-care profiles | Derek Lory

Derek Lory said he hopes that he'll one day work for, or start up, a nonprofit organization that provides low-income people access to more-healthful, locally grown food.

The Columbus Dispatch

Derek Lory said he hopes that he’ll one day work for, or start up, a nonprofit organization that provides low-income people access to more-healthful, locally grown food.

For now, the Ohio State University graduate works at a fresh-produce stand in Columbus, a job that averages 33 to 34 hours a week and pays him about $18,500 a year.

Instead of health insurance, his employer offers a $50-per-month stipend that workers can put toward health insurance they buy themselves.

Lory, however, is uninsured. And although tax credits would cover about two-thirds of the cost of coverage through the new health-insurance exchange, Lory said devoting $78 per month toward a health-care premium is out of the question, given his other expenses.

Instead, he expects he’ll pay a penalty equal to 1 percent of his income, or about $185. He’s not happy about that, noting that many students graduating from college face a lot of expenses for the first time. A penalty for not paying health insurance “is just another thing thrown at them,” he said.

The cost of the premiums reflects an 18 percent surcharge because Lory smokes. He said it’s unfair to make tobacco usage a criterion for determining the cost of coverage along with age, geographic location and family size.

“If anything, you should maybe get a bonus for having a healthier lifestyle; an incentive, rather than being punished,” he said.

Lory said he wishes that the United States were a country that provides free, universal health care to its citizens. Health care should not just be a business, he said. “People should not be a commodity.”

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